As a do-over of the first IC Crossover RPG, this one will play out in pretty much the same way. But here's a explanation anyway for your convenience:

Consider the fourth wall destroyed in this RPG. Characters, at the choice of their creator, may be fully, partially, or not at all aware of the fourth wall. Besides that, the rules are similar to the other threads; no godmoding, powerplaying, etc. Just as before, the setting is in a mansion. But this time that can change...

Well, here's a place to dump my insanity ^_^ A 16 year year old with extreme hyperness with the mind seeming of a toddler, an insane man with a sociopathic, erm, hat and a poor antisocial individual. Teehee :)

"You're joking.....I don't deserve to be here with these insane fools. I have to deal with one all the time, what are you thinking?!"

Celes giggled, then gave an overexaggerated frown at the comment of his precious tophat.

"I'm not precious. Think that again, and I'll kill you."

Celes ripped off his hat, throwing it on a couch freaked out.

"BE NICE!"

"I'm not entitled to 'be nice'"

Over in a corner, a dark corner, was hiding Valerai. How he got here and why was beyond him, but the man shouting was scaring him, and he was talking to a hat...which was even scarier. He was definitely staying away from them and any others that were going to be "dumped" here in this thread....

"Why are you hiding?? I'm not scary!!!"

Celes had now drawn his attention to the guy that was trying to hide because....he was scary???? He was NICE, not SCARY.

. . . And appeared out of no where, exactly, it seemed, in the place from whence they came. Kihn looked at Morgan, half with question, half with accusation. He was not happy with how things were going. She shrugged, eyes narrowing. "I don't know, okay? I tried to take us away from here." "Are you sure it's the same place?" Anthony asked. "Things can get confusing," Malachi contributed. Carlos just humphed and turned to look outward from where they all huddled, bringing a weapon up and at the ready. "We've got civilians here, but different ones. Something's changed," he said. Gilchrist knelt where he was and started praying. "Did I miss anyone?" Mongoose Asked. Some of those in his group of characters looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. Anthony just smirked. "And why," Mongoose continued, "Does fiction press keep manging all my paragraphs together into one? That's so not cool."

"Mongoose," Jac said, "That interface thing that makes the tags for us is gone for some reason. You have to make the tags manually. If you go to my--that is, this post, as if you were to edit it, you'll see the tags I used to make the paragraph breaks at the beginning and end of my paragraphs. It's sort of like BB code. AND YUKI!!" He pointed obnoxiously like the monkey in Chris' closet from Family Guy. "YOU MAY JOIN! In fact, you must. Or I'll throw pies at you for the rest of your natural life."

With that spoken he faded into dust, planning to throw some of his characters into a brand new, horrifying situation...as he always tended to do.

Andrea came to slowly, lying on the floor. What the hell happened? First she was in that city looking for Nick, now she was in the middle of a mansion with something on her face...apple pie? How did that get there? More importantly, who hit her in the face with it and why?!

She started wiping the mess from her face with an armored glove, eyeing the others in the room with suspicion. Could it have been one of them? But the ones in that group seemed to be confused, just as she was. And there was one guy that was talking and shouting to himself. Or his hat, it seemed.

Andrea snapped to attention when she saw a shimmering figure near the boy in the corner. She knew it for what it was: active camouflage. Was it Nick? But if it was, then why hadn't he attacked her like he'd done before?

She got her answer a moment later, seeing the user simply fade into view: a man who appeared to be in his mid twenties to early thirties, wearing a woodland-camo ballistic vest on top of a black BDU. He didn't seem very hostile, but rather caught off guard.

____________

Alexei Konstantin was confused, for once.

He'd been working with the other members of his team, then...this happened. His surroundings changed to this...mansion? Had he been teleported by someone? He needed answers, preferably now, though he didn't think he'd get any from these people. A group seemed to be conversing. A man shrank into a corner. A woman had just risen, wiping at pie on her face, then eying him suspiciously. Wait...pie? Something was very wrong here.

"Just my luck." Alexei muttered that under his breath, then spoke up. "Reinhart! Yamaguchi! Someone else I know! Any of you here?"

He got a response, thought distant; Jericho Thomas was first, followed by the two he called out, then Amara North, Nathan Miller, and Isabella Gunther(different version, not from Sumus Dei.). They arrived from different rooms, gathering quietly, still caught off guard by their current predicament.

Valentine grinned at Jac's comments. She didn't understand what the pies had to do with anything, but that didn't really matter at the moment, or did it? Her characters, though not seemingly too confused, didn't seem to satisfy her...So, one more wouldn't hurt, even though he wasn't exactly fully developed, there was enough for him to use.

Elipsion had now offically made the decision to ignore this apparent dominant voice. What it had to do with this, he didn't know, but he would make sure to find out and silence it. He wasn't going to submit himself to this voice, or anyone else for that matter. He was the one that invaded minds, and he would not allow competetion. Other individuals had appeared as well but none caught his interest yet, so he remained in this 'Niko' form.

Valentine grinned at Elip's words. She loved her sociopath.

Celes blinked, not exactly following the voice, because he was trying to keep track of HIS voice. His hat...HIS HAT. Hey, there were others now.

"How'd....."

Valerai, pressing even further into the corner, was increasing hating this situation. It doubled when a man came into view right in front of him, making him jump. Why.....oh why oh why oh why was he here? Hyperventilation started to set it.

"OHHH, MORE PEOPLE!!!"

Akira, with his neon orange trench, was hardly containing his excitement as more and more people were arriving. NEW FRIENDS! He bounced around the room, getting into people's personal spaces, with a huge smile on his face.

Valentine tapped her finger, waiting. Last but not least, arrived.....falling.

Xenon suddenly found himself in the middle of a fall, landing onto a hard wooden floor causing his SVT-40 to fly from his hands, and slide across the floor. His purple cap remanined on his light bluish-purple shoulder length hair. He gave a weak groan of pain, and pushed himself up with a fingerless, long gloved hand that was, not skin tight, but close to it. Standing only 4'7'' and 14 years old, Xenon looked around this strange location with his blue-purple eyes. Where was he? Wherever he was...it looked expensive, and he was immiediately self conscious, since he was homeless and an orphan afterall. His baggy clothes his his thin form, he was 25 pounds underweight of his healthy weight, which would've been 100 pounds. Xenon noticed other people, and again felt out of place. He was probably the only non-human here, well, he was demi-human. Where did his gun go....

Another pie seemed to materialize above Andrea; she happened to look up in time to see it coming. Eyes wide with surprise, instinct took over and she rolled to the side, seeing the pie--this one raspberry--splatter on the floor instead of on her.

"Who the hell is doing that?" Andrea unslung the flechette rifle from over her shoulder, only to find that it was empty. And all of her spare clips were gone, as well. "And who took my ammo?"

Ignoring the very odd scene taking place, Alexei spoke to his team again. "We're missing one. Where's Lawrence?" The telepathic/telekinetic hadn't made her presence known; that is, if she were here. He wasn't too worried, she could take care of herself easily. He turned and regarded the fear-stricken youth pressing further into the corner for a second, then turned back to his team. He typically addressed them by last names only. "Gunther, is your GPS up? Mine's working, somewhat, but I can't get our location."

"'Somewhat' puts it rather well." Isabella frowned as she spoke, seeing the same thing as Alexei while she used her cybernetic eye. "I don't have a signal."

Amara turned and headed for the nearest door, finding an exit. She headed out into the courtyard, finding a pergola that led to the center of the area, then branched out into three paths: two leading to two different houses, and the third(which was straight ahead because the path was shaped like a plus sign) led to a gate. The exit. She came back to the others after her discovery.

Akira Yamaguchi(Jac's char, not Val's) remained mostly out of the way of everyone involved, choosing to stand near a couch. Said couch had a top-hat on it. She gave a newcomer a weirded-out look when he suddenly bounced right into her personal space.

Alexei looked further into the mansion, seeing a balcony with a flight of stairs leading up to it. He then turned to see an oddball coming from nowhere, standing uncomfortably close. Alexei gave this one an annoyed look for a moment before pushing him aside. The other members of the team either treated this invasive man roughly the same, or just ignored him.

Though there was one minor exception. When the guy bounced over to Sylvia Reinhart, she gave him about a full second to back off before pushing him out of arm's reach, though not nearly as gently as her other comrades.

Then someone fell into the room, literally, though it hardly earned even a glance. At this point there wasn't much else that could surprise the team, besides the boy's hair color. It was reminiscent of something...Japanese? What was it called? Anime? Alexei couldn't remember right now, couldn't care to remember either.

He spoke up. "My team, on me. We'd better get acquainted with this place. Find out what or who brought us here..."

"And why." It was Annabelle "Anna" Lawrence's voice. She stood at the top of the balcony, looking down on the people below. She didn't need to read Alexei's mind (though she had never been able to--it was like something was blocking her.)to come to the same conclusion.

Alexei nodded to her, pulling the handgun from his holster and checking it. He hadn't brought the 10mm pistol with him, right now he had a Beretta 92FS. It would do its job. He secured the weapon and looked to his companions as Anna headed down the stairs to join them.

Alright, let's see if I can get acquainted with how this works... Leta's vision was suddenly filled with a bright light, and when she opened her eyes, it was even brighter. She sat up and covered her face until it was bearable to look at. Once she was able to look around a little she took note of her surroundings. First, she was on a roof. Second, she was alive. Wait, she was alive? She stood and felt allover herself, making sure it was true. How could she be real? Solid? Materialized? Only moments ago she was just a thought in the dark confines of her maker's mind. She was so stunned that she lost her footing and tumbled off the roof. Thankfully, there was a balcony just a few feet below her. She landed with a thud and slowly stood. Yep, she was definitely alive, and it was a painful reality. She looked through a pair of glass doors to see what was inside, but she couldn't see anything because of a pair of curtains that covered them. She pressed up against the door to try and see through the sheer, but got more than a peek. The door flew open and she stumbled right over the banister on the other side. She just missed the couch below her, and hit the hard stone floor instead. She sat up once more, rubbing her head, and opened her eyes to several faces. Suddenly panicked and self conscious, she tried to back away from the crowd, only to run into a table and bring a rather expensive looking vase down on her head. Her raccoon ears twitched and a fuzzy, black and gray striped tail popped out from behind her. She always shifted when she was nervous. She lifted her purple eyes to all of the strange faces, not sure what to expect next.

Mongoose shook his head. "This is not looking good. At least no one's attacked anyone yet. Though that WAS fun, the first time." He shrugged and looked to Anthony, who seemed to be most aware of him. Something about having died and risen again.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Anthony asked.

"Up to you, but if you don't do something you'll either get lost or trampled in the mess," Mongoose answered.

"Roight. Uh, Kihn, I'm talking to our writer. He thinks we should do something to . . . contain this situation."

"Agreed. Let's get up high. Morgan, can you use your voice to get everyone's attention?"

"Sure." They all made their way up the staircase to the balcony, assuming positions beside the person who was already there, who appeared to be a soldier or operative of some sort herself. They greeted her with sober nods and the like. No one in Mongoose's crew was particularly thrilled to be there.

"Greetings good people," Morgan said. Her voice was not loud, perse, but it carried over the entire area occupied by the IC Crossover Thread. "May I have your attention for a few moments Please? Thank you. I'll turn it over to my colleague, Kihn Waiting Bear, the Snowy Owl."

She motioned to Kihn and stepped back, giving him the spot at the railing of the balcony.

"No doubt you all have questions about what is happening here, where you are, who I am and why I'm talking to you, etc. We may be able to figure some of those questions out, but first I would only like to ask that we all commit to not kill each other. Who would like to join me in the effort to keep everyone alive?"

Valentine sighed. Great. Elipsion would definitely see this as a challenge...Here we go.

~~~~

Elipsion listened from his place on the couch, keeping tabs on the individual who was standing near the couch. Kihn, the one who had just finished speaking was asking for the most ridiculous thing he ever heard. Commit not to kill? Keeping himself alive, he could work with allowing the using of these fools, but to refrain from killing was asking him not to live. This would be addressed, and quickly. What was making this man think he was a leader bothered him, and Elipsion had no intentions of listening to him either way. Who would like to join him? His annoyance grew, and the tophat glowed purple before Elipsion appeared into his original form.

Celes stared at Elipsion and shrieked.

"WHO ARE YOU?!?! WHY DIDN'T I KNOW THIS?!

Celes was completely thrown into shock and surprise. He never, in his wildest dreams, and those were pretty wild, that his hat...his lovely hat...was not a hat?!

Elipsion completely ignored the fool he called 'master'. Closer to the truth was 'host', but the idiot didn't deserve to know anything. Walking with silent steps, Elipsion approached the bottom of the staircase, standing beside the short, malnurished child.

"And who made you leader, hm?"

Xenon glanced up at the man who had just stopped beside him. So he wasn't the only.....non-human, since this man didn't look human either. Xenon was Undalx, a demi-human species and this man was something completely different. His skin was a light grey, white hair....black clothing...soft Transylvanian accent..and he gave off an unfriendly vibe. The man who just talked had a great suggestion and he was willing to go along with it. So, Xenon stepped forward slightly, and spoke, lookign at the ground in fear he would be discovered as Undalx.

"I....will join..."

If only he had his gun. Most would find it strange for a kid his height and age carrying around a rifle, but it was natural to Xenon. A four foot rifle being carried by a four foot seven, fourteen year old kid. No unsual at all.

"I believe this is yours, kid."

A man approached behind Xenon, with a German accent and white hair, but looking 29 years of age. He wore a green jacket, which ended at his thigh, and black pants and shoes. His eyes were a bright red, and hair was white and shoulder length but pulled back into a loose ponytail. But what was most unsual, was the symbol this man wore on his left arm. A swastika, but it was broken apart and crumbled opposed to being whole. THe red sash was burned, purposely.

~~~~

Valentine smiled. Well, I guess Grace decided to show up here too. And please....He's not a Nazi.

Anna nodded to the other group as they came up the balcony, but frowned when one of them spoke up. Interesting...he wanted a guarantee that others wouldn't fight? What prompted that kind of request? Did everyone seem hostile, or was it based on past experiences?

Jac suggested something. "Yuki, would you oppose this statement? Was this what you were going for? I wasn't sure." He pointed down to the next paragraph.

Anna took notice of a girl falling into the house via the open skylight above the balcony. Good thing the architect placed it there or the girl would have had a painful fall. Well, a fall that was more painful than the current one. After the girl slowly recovered, Anna turned her attention back to the group, spotting a white haired man approach. Well, she'd seen him already; how couldn't she when someone downstairs had shrieked about his appearance?

Yamaguchi's attention had shifted elsewhere, mainly on the hat--which was now no longer a hat. In its place appeared a strange man with long, white hair. Definitely some sort of preternatural creature. Akira activated her powers; to an onlooker it merely seemed that her skin had taken on an unusual luster. Though the other members of her team would know better; she'd just prepared to go on the defensive if needed. Her skin had become tougher, like a metallic substance, though stronger than most minerals.

She didn't like the look of this man. Add that to the fact that he appeared from nowhere, along with the body language he gave off while walking to the balcony, and one could easily see that the situation was already getting tense.

Alexei turned at the shriek, seeing the same as Akira and noting that she put her powers to use. He wouldn't take chances either; he began a diagnostic on his systems. If something was out of whack, it was best to find it now instead of later. Taking a brief glance around, he took note of who was close by, friend and foe alike:

Amara was still close by; Jericho had drifted off, behind the woman that had a pie problem, and glanced once at the youth in the corner. Sylvia wasn't too far away from him; Anna was covering the group at the top of the balcony. If they or the white-haired man started anything, she'd be ready; and Akira began heading to the stairs, stopping at the left side's base.

They pretty much had the place covered. If a fight started they could react accordingly, working in pairs. Or they could all back off, leave the area and let it run its course.

The team members remained silent and observed. It seemed the newcomer was against any agreement of any sort. Though the guy that spoke, called Kihn apparently, had never actually declared leadership. He was merely doing the same thing Alexei would have done: create an alliance, collaborate, gather intel, etcetera.

Anna decided to speak to the man challenging Kihn. "No one made him leader. Seems like he's just trying to get his bearings and a few allies." She crossed her arms, meeting this odd man's eyes full on. "If you've a better idea, then let's hear it, because so far you all you've done is make yourself look like an idiot." She considered whether or not she'd try probing his mind, but decided against it. She didn't know what he could do; it was possible that any person here could detect it and/or happen to be an even stronger telepath than her. Though there'd be a very slim chance of the latter. So no, she'd keep to herself and keep away from everyone's minds. Better to let someone else make the first move with uncertainty so that she could gauge them and react accordingly to counter.

Alexei frowned as he heard Anna's response. She was supposed to keep out of the conversation, not enter it and egg on the newcomer. This wasn't good, especially considering the body language that man was showing.

In the meantime, Akira held her ground at the balcony's base, watching the man as Anna talked to him. If anything happened, she'd be ready to fight in a heartbeat.

Yet another pie fell, landing on Andrea's thigh. This one was cherry. "Dammit," she snarled, "What the hell's doing that?!"

Leta didn't like being close to this white haired man by the steps, but she was afraid that if she tried to move, she'd mess something else up or make a bigger scene. For the time being, she tried to figure who in this room would try and help her, and who would try and kill her if things got ugly. Sadly, though, she was a poor judge of character. Yuki responded to Jac's question. "I was thinking more of doors on the balcony leading to an outdoor balcony that she fell through, but I kind of like the skylight idea more. It seems to fit the clumsiness of Leta better. And how do you make the paragraphs in your post's work?!" She frustratedly went back to typing in this mess of sentences.

"Sir," Morgan said, "I don't think it worked. Those who aren't aggressive won't get that way. Those who are won't care what you said. And no, I didn't need to read anyone's mind to pull that."

"Hrmph," Kihn said. "Well, not that you aren't all always so, but prepare."

Kihn was right. They were all ready, already. They arrayed themselves facing outward, hands on whatever weapons they had. Anthony and Gilchrist had none, believing they needed none, but they were still in ready positions; Anthony making eye contact with everyone around and Gilchrist looking about as peaceful and non-threatening as possible. Morgan had a daggar, and she rested her hand on the pommel. Malachi rested his hand on the pistol grip on his crossbow, but kept it aimed at the floor. Carlos kept his (did I specify?) MP 5 10mm pointed at the floor, on the opposite side of the group from Malachi. Anyone else in the group that is not described here maintained similar stances. The other operatives in the room would know the meaning of the postures of Kihn and his team. They did not mean to instigate anything, but they expected something and would be ready.

They slowly moved away from the railing and back to the wall, minimizing the targets they presented to others in the room.

Grace sighed. So what exactly was his purpose in this situation? He was standing, not directly behind, but off to the side, behind the...uh...kid who was looking for his gun. The hostile guy, well everyone in fact, had completely ignored his presence which was a good thing at the moment. The broken swastika on his arm never attracted a good reaction, even though he was not a Nazi. Well, there was more to his story but it wasn't the time to share. Better to put a stop immediately to the threat than wait for it to get bigger. Since no one was paying attention, he pulled out a gun and simply fired into the hostile man's head a good four to five times, then calmly put it away.

"Problem solved."

~~~~~~

Too bad that wouldn't kill off her sociopath.

~~~~~

Elipsion had completely ignored the woman who decided to put herself in his way. Then he heard something about pulling out a gun, then he was collasped onto the floor with a few holes in his head. He coughed out the bullets, and staggered up, his annoyance and irritation now drastically increased.

"You'll pay"

Xenon, taking away his SVT from the German man, stared at the man he had just shot. He was.....still alive. He was momentarily distracted by a painful hunger pang, reminding him that he was in desperate need of food, what he was doing before he was suddenly falling into this place. Those pies that were landing on that one girl were looking really good, but that was awkward to think about. Xenon sighed, he would find food at a better time.

"Maybe...."

He wasn't exactly sure what he wanted to say, so he shut his mouth.

Valerai paled, becoming dizzy and threatening to faint. This was way too much.

Jac nodded to Yuki. "Well, if I misinterpret stuff, make sure you clarify." He then returned to messing with Andrea.

The aforementioned woman had cleared her thigh of the mess. Then she looked up in anticipation, only to notice something that made her heart sink; a dozen pies floating in midair. As she saw them, gravity decided to take over.

"You've got to be kiddi--" Splat. At this point, she didn't even bother moving. Let this @#$^%@@ hit her with pies all day. She was tired, her neck hurt, her stomach ached, she had cuts and bruises from past battles, her hair was officially a mess as of now, and she had a dozen more problems to deal with, one of them being her current status as a joke character. But she didn't know about this last one.

Jac snickered, fully aware of his sudden cruelty. Then he turned to focus on the unfolding events.

Anna cursed when a man she hadn't taken notice of simply drew a gun and put a few rounds in the head of the man she'd spoken to. The guy then said the problem was solved.

"No. Problem not solved," she muttered grimly. Had she the desire to step in, she would have sent a telekinetic blast at the offending gunman. She took note of the ruined swastika on his arm, thinking it might either be a old relic or broken for some different meaning. In any case, that no longer mattered to her. What did matter was simply staying out of the fight. The other group had already taken precautions, moving swiftly and effectively to a more defensible position, in ready stances as well. It seemed they had the right idea.

She called to her own comrades as the apparent victim got up. His recovery hadn't surprised her; she'd seen far stranger things than that. "Get ready..." She hopped over the balcony, using her telekinetic power to float slowly to the floor below. By that time all the other members had long since prepared themselves, in fact had done so since the man had drawn his weapon to shoot.

Alexei's diagnostic came back with zero problems. Everything was functioning fine, save for GPS, and that was because he didn't have a signal. Without saying a word to his team, he simply switched on his active camouflage, fading from view quickly. It barely left a shimmer to spot him by. "We fight only if attacked first," he addressed the others with the ROE. "But stay on guard."

Isabella simply drew a handgun: a Kimber Custom with loaded with .45 rounds, ready to use at a moment's notice.

Amara seemed to do nothing, but someone with a trained eye might be able to see weak heat waves rolling from her hands.

Jericho remained where he was, near the corner. He slung a small submachine gun from his shoulder, alert and watching.

Akira stayed on the balcony, skin still tougher than steel. The situation was already going downhill, fast. She'd heard Alexei and crossed her arms, wishing she had clobbered the guy with the gun before her leader said anything.

Sylvia crossed her arms as well, almost looking bored. She was more than ready. She practically wanted this to go wrong.

"Oh no. It's beginning," Morgan said. She'd started opening her mind to pick up the emotions that people projected, and a moment before the man fired on the white haired creature she knew he was about to.

"Let's move. Give me an exit," Kihn said.

Morgan figured she was the obvious choice to create one, being the most powerful person here even though she was the smallest, so she turned to the door behind them.

Anthony held up a hand, grinned and winked, and turned the doorknob, opening the door. "Ladies first," he said.

She flipped her hair, hmphed, and walked through the door ahead of him.

"Wait," Kihn said. "I need you here for a moment. Are any of them," he indicated the other team of operatives in the room with a tilt of his eyebrows. She could read his mind if she didn't understand, "Telepathic? Could you and their telepath liase between our teams?"

She inclined her head and sent out a general greeting that could be picked up by anyone listening, but barely even felt by anyone else. It was little more than her name. Sort of as though she'd mumbled, "Hi, I'm Morcant Ap Llewelyn." Only a telepath would know what she was doing, and they could trace the thought back to its source.

Valerai, remaining in his corner, and being set on staying like this, except....he really, really wanted to leave this room. He didn't want to be around if fighting broke out. He had abilities..

~~~~~

Valentine frowned. She'd have to search for his powers again.....Here they were, quite the list for such an antisocial character...telepathy, item manipulation, enhanced hearing/sight, teleportation...wow.

~~~~~

Valerai blinked. He couldn't believe he had all that himself. He could help, but his fear of people stopped him.

Akira had watched with innocent attention, noticing one group leaving. They didn't like him?!?! He bounded over, and gave the man who had spoken about making friends a huge hug.

"HI!"

Elipsion had calmed just a moment, listening to the voice who had been listing powers. Those could be useful to him. A growing smirk played on Elipsion's face as his interest grew. Which one was the antisocial? There, back in the corner. Elipsion turned an annoyed glance at the man who had shot him.

"You bore me."

Xenon began wondering if he should just expose himself as an Undalx, and use his gel to stop this fighting. But, then again, he'd never used his gel against someone, or his SVT at that. The gun was slung over his shoulder, looking awkward as the rifle was nearly as tall as him. He decided to quietly follow the group leaving; the alliance idea was a great one, and so far, he had none. Xenon quietly walked after them. He suddenly realized that the only ammunition he had was in his gun, so he'd have to be careful.

Celes didn't know how to react. His hat wasn't a hat. It was unbelievable. Why was this so hidden from him??

~~~~~~~

Valentine rolled her eyes. Elipsion hated Celes, and thought little of him. But at the same time, stuck with him. Weird.

The telepathic message passed over Jericho, Akira, Sylvia, Isabella and Amara. As for the remaining two, Anna snapped to attention at the message, while all Alexei heard was garbled meaningless speech in his head. He possessed no telepathy-related powers, but the cybernetic parts of him had melded with his consciousness, and apparently they could sense and inadvertently block mind-related powers. Not entirely, however, given what he'd heard in the first place. He'd get bits and pieces, and if a telepathic were to try reading his mind, he/she would get bits and pieces of meaningless stuff as well.

Anna responded with a mental message of her own. 'Annabelle Lawrence. shorten it to Anna. ' So another person had made the first move. Very well, then. 'What do you want?'

Jericho took note of the white-haired man's sudden interest in the youth in the corner. Why the man's focus changed, he knew not, but Jericho stayed where he was, conflicted. None of the others would care about this kid... what would this man do?

Alexei, still invisible, spotted Jericho's stance and the other man's focus. Something to keep an eye on. He knew Anna would hear the telepathy, so he didn't need to focus on that.

Leta continued to sit next to the table and stare. 'What the hell are you doing,' a voice said from inside her head.

'I don't know. If I move, one of these psychos might try to kill me', she responded.

'If you don't move they'll try to kill you. Let me have a crack at 'em. You know I can handle them.

Leta shook her head. 'No.'

'Aw, come on. Please?'

'Not happening!

The voice did not reply. Just as Leta thought she had gotten rid of one problem, though, another started. She heard a gun fire several times from the other end of the room. the bullets sailed into the creepy white haired man's head, sending him to the floor. Leta shakily stood, thinking things might be OK, when the man also got up and spit the bloodied bullets out. She squeaked in fright and stood paralyzed for a moment. The voice returned.

'Let me help you!' This was more of a command than a suggestion.

'I can't! I'm not supposed to.'

'Why not?'

This question caught Leta off guard. Yes, why not? She didn't now. She just wasn't supposed to. Of coarse, this voice in her head had access to all her thoughts, and it took advantage of that. It began to pull at her consciousness. 'Wait! What are you doing?'

'There's no problem, just relax and let me take over for a moment.' The voice was calm and cool. Leta found herself letting it slip in and pull her out. She began to feel as if she was floating within her own body. As the darkness consumed her, she could feel the thoughts and emotions of this other being, and they were all death and violence. It was then that she remembered why she wasn't supposed to let it take control, but it was too late. No sooner had the thought surfaced, then her world became black.

~~~

As soon as this new consciousness took over Leta's body, things changed. Her eyes went from purple to blood red, her hands grew claws, her senses became more acute, and her ears and tail twitched with anticipation. "Now we can get this show on the road," she said to herself. The white-haired creep seemed to be the immediate concern. "Hey ugly," she called to him. "You wanted to pick a fight?" With that she lunged at him, teeth and claws ready to rip at his flesh.

The rest of the Mongoose Crew, except Morgan and Kihn, were back in the room. Kihn was more or less guarding the door. Morgan turned her gaze to make eye contact with the one that responded mentally, as she found that eased the communication and thought to her.

"Communicate; my leader to yours, by us. Thought is quicker and purer than speech and works over greater distances."

This, of course, all happened in a fraction of a second, and would probably be comprehended just as quickly.

Morgan assumed somewhat more of a ready stance when . . . a creature attacked the . . . other creature below.

Grace raised an eyebrow. This....ah, individual was choosing to ignore him. That was fine. Less of a problem for him, but he had a feeling that this man would be the continuing problem. Perhaps shooting him wasn't the smartest idea, seeing as after all he wasn't...human. He wasn't exactly human either. And NOW this other creature/person was attacking the one he just shot. Someone was getting killed, and it wasn't about to be him so he moved aside to let the angered....cat? Raccoon? through. He'd keep an eye on the situation, and step in if needed. Noticeably he wasn't the only one ready to intervene. Pulling out a cigarette and a lighter, Grace stood back, and watched.

What was this? Elipsion's attention snapped from the boy in the corner, to the thing lunging at him like a crazed animal. She was most definitely out of her mind...and yet she also sparked his interest. Hanging back and now suddenly attacking? Curious.

"Alright, we'll play."

He then disappeared fully from sight, then reappearing standing upside down on the ceiling, his long bat wings materialized, holding him there even though his wings did not attach to his body; in fact they floated about an inch of his shoulder blade.

Valerai had begun to hyperventilate. That thing....that thing!!! It looked at him...and it was making a point of coming over this way. He was dead..he was dead. He might as well just kill himself now. Maybe, maybe he could try to use one of his powers, but...

Xenon stared up at the creature on the ceiling. Well, he could snipe it, but the German man had shot it, and it hadn't killed him, so shooting it would only be a waste. Maybe, if the creature came down, he could trap him and the girl who attacked in his gel, so that they could be restrained. How to do so..

"Could.....we..get him down...?"

Celes was panicking. They were shooting his hat....? His HAT THAT WAS A LIVING THING!!! And it scared him.

Leta landed on the floor where the man had just been standing. She angrily looked around and noticed him above her, with bat wings. So he was an anima too? But there was something different about him. She didn't care, all she wanted to do was rip his throat out. Blood, how she longed to have blood on her hands! She scrambled up the rails of the steps like...well, like a racoon, giving no consideration to the people gathered there, and leaped at him from behind. She knew he would probably get away again, but all she wanted to do was get him on the ground. She wasn't meant to fly.